“The Church is the Cross on which Christ was crucified.” Romano Guardini

“I felt that the Church was the Church of the poor, that St. Patrick’s had been built from the pennies of servant girls, that it cared for the emigrant, it established hospitals, orphanages, day nurseries, houses of the Good Shepherd, homes for the aged, but at the same time, I felt that it did not set its face against a social order which made so much charity in the present sense of the word necessary. I felt that charity was a word to choke over. Who wanted charity? And it was not just human pride but a strong sense of man’s dignity and worth, and what was due to him in justice, that made me resent, rather than feel proud of so mighty a sum total of Catholic institutions. …When I see the church taking the side of the powerful and forgetting the weak, and when I see bishops living in luxury and the poor being ignored or thrown bread crumbs, I know that Jesus is being insulted, as He once was, and sent to his death, as He once was. The church doesn’t only belong to officials and bureaucrats; it belongs to all its people, and especially its most humble men and women and children, the ones He would have wanted to go see and help…. I am embarrassed–I am sickened–when I see Catholics using their religion as a social ornament. Peter [Maurin] used to tell me that a good Catholic should pray for the church as if it is a terrible sinner, in bad need of lots of prayers. I remember being surprised for a second to hear him say that; he was such a devout Catholic. But then I realized that it was precisely because he was so devout that he said what he said. …I think the life of our Lord is constantly being lived out: we are betraying Him as well as honoring Him–we in the church as well as those who are outside of it.” Dorothy Day

“I will build my church,
and all the powers of hell
will not conquer it.”
Jesus, in Matthew 16:18

Moving From the Head to the Heart

Can you be honest about the failings of your church, or do you insist on leaving this to outsiders and haters?

Can you see the church as “a terrible sinner” and still love and pray for her?

Can you see in yourself, a member of the church, how you both constantly honor and betray the Lord?

P.S. I’ve been working on a book that would be a collection of 365 daily readings–similar to and based on this blog. I’m looking for a publisher for this complicated project. If you have a contact or advice, please contact me.

There are enough respectable people from whom to draw similarly worthy quotes, rather than such a radical Socialist as Ms Day, who celebrated the Russian Revolution which resulted in millions dead. You tend to lack discernment, in your choices of sources, most likely thinking that you’re being open-minded, assuming the best intentions, but this is also the method of indoctrination used by those with more sinister purposes, who influence those that fit into the Useful Idiot category. Steering anyone in the direction of Dorothy Day is NOT, in my view, something that Jesus would applaud, in spite of much of the good things she said and did. Castro said many similar things, once upon a time…